1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of dynamically updating apparatus information. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique of dynamically changing the contents of various menus and the like which pertain to one or more network devices, including an image forming apparatus, and appear on a screen upon clicking an icon or the like corresponding to the network device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, contents to be displayed on a menu that appears upon clicking a corresponding icon on the screen are registered in a database service. When displaying the menu, the contents are acquired from the database service. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-282079 discloses an application in which multimedia information is output from another associated multimedia information.
In a monitoring apparatus that monitors a network device, for example, the function of an existing application is sometimes extended (in particular by adding a function) using a plug-in such as a program. A user may want to change the display contents of the menu in accordance with the addition/deletion of a function by the plug-in, the start/stop of the function, or the state of an object uniquely managed by the plug-in. According to the conventional technique, however, he needs to sequentially acquire and update pieces of information registered in the database service in order to change the display contents of the menu.
When, for example, a user adds a function using a plug-in to an application or the like which manages network devices, it is very cumbersome to sequentially send inquiries to the database service and manually update information. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-282079 does not consider changing display contents at all in response to the addition/deletion of a function by a plug-in, the start/stop of the function, or the state of an object uniquely managed by the plug-in.